Iowa women's basketball slips in AP Top 25 rankings

Despite wins over Western Illinois (86-69) and Fairfield (86-72), Iowa women's basketball (8-0) saw its ranking dip slightly in the Week 5 AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll.

Continuing her terrific start to the season, sophomore center Ava Heiden recorded double-doubles in the Hawkeyes' two wins last week, including a career-high 16 rebounds to go along with 18 points on Sunday against Fairfield.

While the Hawkeyes dealt with injuries to Chit-Chat Wright, Teagan Mallegni and Emely Rodriguez over the past week, freshman guard Addie Deal took full advantage of increased minutes. Deal registered a career-best performance in Wednesday's win over Western Illinois with a team-high 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting and 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

As a result of a few AP voters feeling a bit skeptical about the Hawkeyes, Iowa slipped one spot from No. 11 nationally to No. 12 in the Dec. 1 edition of the AP Top 25 poll. North Carolina climbed one spot to leapfrog the Hawkeyes after wins over South Dakota State, Kansas State and Columbia.

The Hawkeyes are accompanied by seven other Big Ten programs inside the Top 25 poll, including No. 4 UCLA (8-1), No. 6 Michigan (6-1), No. 7 Maryland (9-0), No. 16 USC (5-2), No. 20 Michigan State (8-0), No. 21 Washington (7-0) and No. 23 Ohio State (6-1).

Nebraska (19 points) and Oregon (6 points) are also receiving votes.

Iowa only has one game, Dec. 6 at Rutgers (7-2), before the Week 6 AP Top 25 poll is revealed on Dec. 7, so the Hawkeyes will likely remain around the same position, barring a catastrophic result in Piscataway, N.J.

Below is the full Week 5 AP Top 25 poll:

Rank

Team

Record

PTS

1st

Prev

Chg

1

UConn

7-0

790

22

1

-

2

Texas

8-0

777

10

4

+2

3

South Carolina

7-1

719

0

2

-1

4

UCLA

8-1

713

0

3

-1

5

LSU

8-0

652

0

5

-

6

Michigan

6-1

629

0

6

-

7

Maryland

9-0

599

0

7

-

8

TCU

8-0

561

0

8

-

9

Oklahoma

7-1

546

0

9

-

10

Iowa State

9-0

502

0

10

-

11

North Carolina

8-1

463

0

12

+1

12

Iowa

8-0

452

0

11

-1

13

Ole Miss

7-0

396

0

13

-

14

Baylor

7-1

355

0

15

+1

15

Vanderbilt

8-0

335

0

17

+2

16

USC

5-2

288

0

18

+2

17

Kentucky

8-1

284

0

16

-1

18

Notre Dame

5-1

276

0

19

+1

19

Tennessee

5-2

245

0

14

-5

20

Michigan State

8-0

233

0

20

-

21

Washington

7-0

171

0

22

+1

22

Louisville

7-2

105

0

23

+1

23

Ohio State

6-1

84

0

NR

+5

24

Oklahoma State

8-1

83

0

24

-

25

West Virginia

6-1

64

0

21

-4

North Carolina State 26; Nebraska 19; Richmond 7; Texas Tech 7; Princeton 6; Oregon 6; Georgia 3; Stanford 2; Fairfield 1; Alabama 1;

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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa women's basketball slips in AP Top 25 rankings